BAY CITY — For a group of high school students in the Great Lakes Bay Region, the end of the school year was more than walking across the stage for graduation, enjoying the summer months or finalizing post-high school plans.

These students are returning home after a year spent in a foreign land, going back to their native countries across the globe with new experiences and perspectives under their belts.

Six students came to the United States this year through the ASSE International Student Exchange Program, an organization formerly known as American Scandinavian Student Exchange that sets up qualified applicants to stay with volunteer host families for one school year. Five of the students who participated during the 2011-12 school year were enrolled in Bay County school districts, and one attended Heritage High School in Saginaw Township.

View full sizeCourtesy | Diane PhelpsMoritz Wolf
Home country: Germany
U.S. High School: Heritage High School in Saginaw

Culture shiftWhen Derrick Yevu, an exchange student from Ghana, Africa, got the news that he was chosen for a scholarship to spend a year at Essexville-Hampton Garber High School through ASSE, he was apprehensive of the country he later grew to love. Rumors he had heard about the U.S., such as stories of lawlessness and disrespect toward authority, sound silly to him now as he reflects on his experience.

"I was scared, I didn't know what to expect," Yevu said. "I had heard lots of wrong things that turned out to be not true."

Diane Phelps, a local representative of the program, said students who go through a foreign exchange program are often unsure or unprepared for some of the changes they will experience when they come to the U.S.

View full sizeCourtesy | Diane PhelpsOlya Kotlyarska
Home country:
UkraineU.S. high school: Essexville-Hampton Garber High School

Once Yevu was settled in, he said he realized the main differences between his home country and the United States were small and quirky, not the large culture gaps he had envisioned.

"I thought it was really strange and different that American's sneeze in public — you do not do
that in (Ghana)," Yevu said. "Really, it's just little differences like that here and there."

A host of new experiencesIn less than a month, Bay City residents Walt and Wyn Deska went from having two grown
children and a relatively empty house to two high school students from different countries.

The Deskas initially took in Sergey Radevich, an exchange student from Kazakhstan, and then decided to host Portuguese student Felipe Reino as well to keep Radevich company.

"He was having a hard time at first, so after some discussion, we got (Reino) to stay with us, too," Walt Deska said. "It really helped them a lot."

View full sizeCourtesy | Diane PhelpsFelipe Reino
Home country: Portugal
U.S. high school: Bay City Central High School

Soon the two boys were in the swing of things, attending sports practices and getting involved in school activities. At home, the Deskas flew the flags of Radevich's and Reino's home countries, took them to several special events and brought them along to family functions throughout the year.

"They really were part of the family," Walt Deska said. "Overall, it was great — we all learned a few things."

Global understandingWhile the program is designed to give international students the experience of living in a different land, having foreign students in a school's population benefits U.S. students as well, Bay City Central High School Assistant Principal Donald Clark said.

View full sizeCourtesy | Diane PhelpsSergey Radevich
Home country: Kazakhstan
U.S. high school: Bay City Central High School

Bay County's four public school districts hosted a total of 30 foreign
exchange students during the 2011-12 school year through a variety of
exchange programs, including ASSE, International Exchange, the American International School System Foundation and PAX — the Program of Academic Exchange.

Many foreign exchange students will speak
about their home country and its customs during class, giving U.S. students an alternate viewpoint, Clark
said.

"That's really where the growth and learning takes place," he said.

Regardless of where they are from or what organization got them here, Clark said the students usually fit right into school life. International students often participate in sports, plays or other school activities, he said.

"They fall in with the different social networks, develop friendships, go to our dances and become part of the student population," Clark said. "High school kids are high school kids...some things are just universal."

Headed homeMany of the students are interested in returning to the United States in later years for college education, but for now, Phelps said all of the students in the ASSE program have or are going to return home.

Most students will have to take another year of high school classes in their own country to make up for the year they missed in the United States, but Phelps said the sacrifice is one many of the students are happy to make.

"It's a life-changing experience — the friendships they make here will probably last forever," Phelps said.

Phelps said their presence benefits them and everyone around them to a degree most don't realize.

"It's a wonderful thing that everyone can take advantage of," she said. "It really makes the world smaller."

Each of the six students voiced similar opinions in essays documenting their time in the U.S. Read about the exchange experience from perspectives of the six international students who spent a year in local high schools through the ASSE program by clicking on the links below.